Bill Gates on Solving Global Problems by Measuring Them

Jan 28, 2013 3:30 pm ET

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Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates

In an essay in Saturday’s Review section of the Journal, Microsoft’s Bill Gates argues that we need new ways of measuring the success and failures of international efforts to provide services to health clinics, schools and family farms around the world. Measurement and thorough feedback about what’s working and what isn’t can “drive global change,” he says, and solve the world’s biggest problems.

His case studies include a system of health clinics in rural Ethiopia where health care workers track immunizations and outbreaks of preventable illness. Clinics also track births and deaths, tracking which only got underway consistently in 2000. (The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation produced this video, illustrating the work of these clinics. Polio vaccinations are another Gates foundation focus, the work of which is described here.)

Measurement alone won’t fix problems, Gates acknowledges. Consistent systems of feedback, in which results are evaluated and explained, are also necessary for refining the approach to problem solving.

The annual letter of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will be released on Wednesday. Read previous annual letters here.

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